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Senate panel debates living spaces for egg-layers

WASHINGTON — The freedom of a hen to flap its wings and move around became an issue of congressional concern Thursday as a Senate committee discussed legislation to set national standards for the treatment of egg-laying hens.

The debate over how much space hens should have in their coops has drawn the attention of other livestock producers who fear that they’ll be the next target of animal welfare advocates, and has become a states’ rights issue as some states try to impose their tougher standards on eggs coming from other states.

“This is a practical, fair-minded deal that solves a real problem for the egg industry,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. She was promoting her legislation that would increase the size of henhouses and require egg labeling so consumers will know how the hens were raised.

Her effort to create national standards is in part the result of an initiative passed by Californians in 2008 that required that hens be able to stretch their wings and turn around. At least five other states have enacted similar rules, creating a patchwork of standards that has complicated operations for egg producers.

Greg Herbruck, a poultry farmer from Michigan, told the packed hearing room that his farm sells eggs in 30 states and that with individual state standards “we could have to have a chicken house for every state.”

The legislation was also patterned after a compromise reached last year between the Humane Society of the United States and United Egg Producers, whose members produce 90 percent of all eggs sold in the United States.

David Lathem, chairman of United Egg Producers and a Georgia poultry farmer, said the deal would allow his industry to plan for the future where “the American public is interested as never before in where food comes from.”

He denied that there would be a “slippery slope” where animal welfare groups, if successful in changing how hens are raised, next go after other livestock industries.

The president of the Human Society, Wayne Pacelle, told The Associated Press that he was confident the legislation could be added to a farm bill pending in the House. He said the compromise his group reached with the egg growers was “a model for solving other conflicts that exist in our country.” The two groups, he said, “spent tens of millions of dollars against each other and now we have found a common path forward that is good for animal welfare and provides the certainty that egg groups desire. ”

Groups representing beef and pork industries have come out against Feinstein’s bill, and a companion bill in the House sponsored by Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., arguing that they might be the next target of federal legislation. Lathem said poultry farmers, unlike other animal producers, are willingly seeking uniform standards.